LG Ad Solutions integrates ACR data with Databricks Marketplace

LG Ad Solutions announced on October 22, 2025, a strategic partnership with Databricks to deliver the company's Automatic Content Recognition data via Delta Sharing through the Databricks Marketplace in the United States. The collaboration transforms how brands, agencies, networks, and measurement partners access global viewership datasets.

The partnership addresses longstanding inefficiencies in data sharing workflows. Historically, analyzing large data files required manual transfers through secure File Transfer Protocol systems or other limited-access infrastructure. These processes consumed significant time and proved difficult to scale across enterprise operations.

Through the integration, contracted data partners can now streamline analytics, enhance planning, and make more informed media decisions within Databricks' governed, privacy-first environment. Julian Zilberbrand, Global Head of Data Solutions at LG Ad Solutions, explained the rationale: "Our goal has always been to meet clients where they are. Many of our partners already use Databricks as a central part of their data workflow, and now they can access LG Ad Solutions' ACR data directly through Delta Sharing, reducing friction and enabling faster, easier adoption through a platform they already trust to plan, measure, and optimize their campaigns."

Technical infrastructure and scale

The Program Views dataset captures second-by-second television viewing across 33 million opted-in LG Smart TVs. The dataset identifies programs, networks, and genres being viewed across linear and streaming environments. According to the marketplace listing updated October 15, 2025, the data provides comprehensive coverage across all 210 United States Designated Market Areas.

The dataset structure represents viewing behavior through user sessions defined by continuous viewership. Each row in the dataset represents a single session that concludes when changes occur in network, program, or device state. The data refresh operates on a monthly frequency, with high-granularity collection maintained at the second-by-second level.

Geographic coverage extends across the United States and Canada. Databricks Marketplace functions as a secure online hub where major brands already manage and analyze company data. The integration enables advertisers to enrich first-party data with LG's ACR data for deeper consumer behavior understanding, including program viewership, brand advertising exposure, and gaming activity on LG TVs.

Dave Rudnick, Chief Technology Officer at LG Ad Solutions, emphasized the technical advantages: "Databricks provides the infrastructure that allows us to securely and efficiently deliver the scale of LG's global ACR data in a way that aligns with advertisers' existing workflows. By leveraging Databricks Marketplace & Delta Sharing and open architecture, we can make complex datasets easy to access and activate—helping our partners move faster and make smarter, data-informed decisions."

Use case applications

The Program Views dataset enables four primary application categories for enterprise analytics. Media planning capabilities include analyzing historical program-level viewing trends to inform network and genre allocation. The data enables identification of audience overlap and incremental reach across linear and streaming platforms. Advertisers can build content-based audience segments for targeting and forecasting purposes.

Activation use cases center on audience targeting based on program, network, or genre engagement. The deterministic household linkage extends campaign activation to connected devices. High-value cohorts such as live sports viewers or entertainment enthusiasts become accessible through the data infrastructure.

Measurement and reporting applications provide visibility into tune-in metrics, audience lift, and competitive share by network or program. Frequency distribution and exposure pattern evaluation across campaigns becomes feasible. The dataset generates insights for tentpole events and daypart viewership performance analysis.

Custom analysis opportunities include quantifying streaming-only versus hybrid household behavior. Advertisers can analyze HDMI usage patterns, connected-device overlap, and cross-platform engagement metrics. The second-by-second ACR viewership data supports custom analytics tailored to specific business questions.

Market context and industry implications

The integration addresses fragmentation challenges that have plagued connected TV advertising infrastructure. ACR data integration has become increasingly central to programmatic advertising strategies as viewing patterns shift from traditional linear television to streaming platforms.

Multiple advertising technology companies have pursued ACR data partnerships throughout 2024 and 2025. Nexxen renewed its partnership with VIDAA in August 2025, investing $35 million to secure exclusive global ACR data access through 2029. The company subsequently licensed ACR audience segments to Yahoo DSP across three markets in October 2025.

The competitive landscape demonstrates growing recognition of ACR data's strategic value. LG Ad Solutions operates one of the world's largest deterministic CTV datasets with 200 million LG Smart TVs globally. The company's ACR technology captures content and ad exposure through privacy-compliant mechanisms built into the television hardware.

Nielsen secured access to LG's ACR data footprint in 2023 for both linear and connected TV measurement. That partnership provided Nielsen with more complete views of television viewing habits and enabled more accurate audience measurement data delivery to advertisers.

The Databricks integration differentiates itself through enterprise-grade infrastructure supporting data governance requirements. Databricks Marketplace operates as a centralized platform where organizations already conduct data management and analytics operations. The Delta Sharing protocol enables secure data collaboration without requiring data movement or replication.

Broader advertising technology integration trends

The partnership aligns with broader movements toward standardized advertising technology infrastructure. The Ad Context Protocol launched in October 2025 with LG Ad Solutions among 23 launch member organizations. That protocol provides standardized interfaces for advertising automation across platforms.

Technical implementation within Databricks requires minimal additional infrastructure investment for existing platform users. Organizations operating Databricks environments can access the Program Views dataset through standard Delta Sharing mechanisms. The architecture eliminates file transfer protocols and manual data ingestion processes that previously characterized large-scale data partnerships.

Access to the complete global dataset requires mutually agreed-upon contracts between LG Ad Solutions and interested parties. A sample dataset remains available through Databricks Marketplace for evaluation purposes. Organizations seeking partnership opportunities can contact datasales@lgads.tv to discuss arrangements.

The partnership reflects ongoing consolidation within connected TV measurement infrastructure. As viewing patterns continue fragmenting across streaming services, deterministic measurement solutions gain strategic importance for advertisers seeking unified campaign visibility. First-party data from television manufacturers provides accuracy advantages over panel-based measurement approaches that rely on statistical sampling.

LG Ad Solutions positions itself as a global leader in CTV advertising and data, delivering what the company describes as currency-grade TV viewership data. The ACR and TV signal technology enables second-by-second content and ad exposure tracking with household-level accuracy. The company emphasizes privacy-compliant data collection methods aligned with regulatory requirements across operating markets.

Competitive positioning

The integration enters a market where demand-side platforms and advertising technology providers compete intensely for premium data partnerships. The Trade Desk has pursued multiple ACR data integrations, recognizing viewership data's importance for campaign optimization.

Databricks, founded by data engineering and artificial intelligence infrastructure development, operates as a neutral platform without direct advertising business interests. This positioning differs from advertising technology companies that maintain proprietary demand-side platforms or sell advertising inventory directly.

The company's Data and AI platform serves enterprise clients across industries for analytics and machine learning operations. The Marketplace component launched as a mechanism for third-party data providers to distribute datasets to Databricks users through standardized interfaces.

LG Ad Solutions emphasizes the scale advantages its dataset provides. The 33 million opted-in Smart TVs in the United States represent substantial household coverage across demographic segments. The deterministic nature of ACR data collection eliminates statistical modeling uncertainties inherent in panel-based measurement approaches.

Connected TV's advertising growth trajectory supports continued investment in data infrastructure. Industry projections indicate CTV advertising spending will continue increasing as streaming adoption expands. Measurement standardization remains challenging across fragmented streaming environments where multiple platforms maintain different technical specifications and data access policies.

The partnership addresses these challenges by providing centralized access to cross-platform viewership data through enterprise infrastructure many advertisers already deploy. Organizations can combine LG's Program Views data with proprietary first-party datasets within Databricks environments, enabling integrated analysis across data sources.

Technical architecture considerations

Delta Sharing operates as an open protocol for secure data sharing across organizations and platforms. The protocol enables data providers to share live datasets with recipients without requiring data replication. Recipients access shared data through read operations that pull information from source systems as needed.

This architecture provides several advantages for large-scale viewership data distribution. Storage requirements remain with the data provider rather than requiring each recipient to maintain complete dataset copies. Updates propagate automatically as LG Ad Solutions refreshes the Program Views dataset monthly.

Access control mechanisms within Delta Sharing enable granular permissions management. Data providers can specify which organizations, teams, or individuals can access specific datasets. Audit logging tracks data access patterns for compliance and security purposes.

The integration supports multiple analytical workloads within Databricks environments. Users can query Program Views data through SQL interfaces for standard reporting and analysis. Data science teams can access the dataset through Python and R interfaces for machine learning model development. The dataset integrates with Databricks' visualization tools for dashboard creation.

The monthly refresh frequency balances data timeliness against processing requirements. Second-by-second granularity within monthly snapshots provides detailed temporal resolution for analyzing viewing patterns. The session-based data structure captures complete viewing sequences rather than fragmented impression logs.

Implications for advertising measurement

The partnership contributes to ongoing debates about television measurement standards. Multiple industry organizations have pursued unified measurement frameworks that reconcile linear television ratings with streaming viewership metrics. The challenge involves combining different data collection methodologies into comparable metrics.

ACR data provides census-level measurement within its device footprint rather than statistical projections from sample panels. This approach offers accuracy advantages for households with ACR-enabled televisions. Coverage limitations exist for households using different television brands or devices without ACR capabilities.

Measurement professionals must therefore understand dataset composition when evaluating campaign performance. The Program Views dataset represents opted-in LG Smart TV households specifically. Extrapolating to total population viewership requires understanding demographic and behavioral differences between LG households and broader television-viewing populations.

The dataset's value for advertisers stems from its ability to inform targeting and optimization decisions rather than replacing panel-based currency measurements. Media buyers can analyze program-level performance within the LG household universe to identify effective content adjacencies and daypart strategies.

Cross-platform measurement remains complex despite improved data access. Viewers frequently consume content across multiple devices and platforms within single viewing sessions. Household-level deterministic linkage, referenced in LG's capabilities, enables some cross-device tracking, but gaps persist in comprehensive viewer journey mapping.

The Databricks integration primarily serves data analysis and activation purposes rather than real-time bidding applications. The monthly refresh frequency suits planning and measurement workflows but limits dynamic campaign optimization use cases requiring real-time viewership signals.

Privacy and compliance framework

LG Ad Solutions emphasizes privacy-compliant data collection across its ACR infrastructure. The 33 million opted-in Smart TVs represent households that consented to viewership data collection through television setup processes. Regulatory frameworks including GDPR in Europe and CCPA in California mandate explicit consent mechanisms for such data collection.

The Databricks partnership operates within enterprise data governance frameworks that many large advertisers already deploy. Organizations can apply existing privacy policies and data handling procedures to the Program Views dataset. Databricks provides infrastructure supporting data residency requirements and access controls aligned with corporate compliance standards.

Industry-wide debates continue regarding appropriate ACR data usage and transparency. Consumer advocacy groups have raised concerns about viewing data collection without clear user understanding of implications. Television manufacturers have responded by implementing more explicit consent mechanisms and privacy controls in device settings.

The Program Views dataset aggregates and structures raw ACR signals into program-level insights rather than providing individual household viewing logs. This aggregation approach balances analytical utility against privacy protections by eliminating unnecessary granular personal information.

Advertising technology platforms increasingly face scrutiny regarding data sharing practices and third-party data usage. Regulatory environments continue tightening requirements for data minimization, purpose limitation, and user consent. The shift toward privacy-compliant infrastructure like Databricks' governed environment reflects industry adaptation to evolving compliance landscapes.

Timeline

• October 15, 2025: LG Ad Solutions updates Program Views Data Feed listing on Databricks Marketplace
• October 22, 2025: LG Ad Solutions announces Databricks partnership for ACR data distribution via Delta Sharing
• October 16, 2025: Nexxen licenses ACR segments to Yahoo DSP across three markets
• October 15, 2025: Ad Context Protocol launches with LG Ad Solutions as launch member
• October 2, 2025: Trade Desk announces OpenAds platform for transparent programmatic auctions
• August 17, 2025: Nexxen renews VIDAA partnership with $35M investment for ACR data access
• August 24, 2024: Trade Desk integrates Nexxen's ACR data for enhanced TV advertising capabilities

Summary

Who: LG Ad Solutions, a global leader in connected TV advertising operating under parent company Alphonso Inc., partnered with Databricks, a Data and AI platform company. The partnership affects brands, advertising agencies, television networks, and measurement partners using Databricks infrastructure for analytics operations.

What: LG Ad Solutions launched its Program Views Data Feed on Databricks Marketplace, providing access to deterministic ACR data from 33 million opted-in LG Smart TVs. The dataset delivers program-level viewership intelligence across 210 United States DMAs with second-by-second granularity and monthly refresh frequency. Data distribution occurs through Delta Sharing protocol within Databricks' governed environment.

When: The partnership announcement occurred on October 22, 2025, with the Databricks Marketplace listing updated October 15, 2025. The dataset captures ongoing television viewing behavior with monthly data refreshes. A sample dataset became immediately available through the marketplace, while complete dataset access requires contracted partnerships.

Where: The initial deployment covers the United States, with geographic data collection extending across all 210 designated market areas and Canada. The Program Views dataset operates within Databricks' cloud infrastructure, accessible to organizations using the platform globally. LG Ad Solutions maintains 200 million Smart TVs worldwide, though the Databricks integration currently focuses on United States market data.

Why: The partnership addresses data collaboration inefficiencies that previously required manual file transfers through secure protocols. By integrating ACR data into Databricks Marketplace, LG Ad Solutions enables advertisers to combine television viewership data with proprietary first-party information within existing analytics workflows. The collaboration responds to growing demand for unified linear and streaming measurement as viewing patterns fragment across platforms. Advertisers gain capabilities for audience intelligence, measurement attribution, and global-scale analytics with enterprise governance frameworks.